Pam Bondi pledges to end era of America’s weaponized federal government

Pam Bondi, President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee, said she would end the federal government’s politically biased investigations that began nearly 10 years ago when Mr. Trump announced his first White House campaign.

“The partisanship, the weaponization will be gone,” Ms. Bondi told the Senate Judiciary Committee on the first of her two-day confirmation hearing. “America will have one tier of justice for all.”

Ms. Bondi, who served as Florida attorney general for eight years and is a loyal Trump ally, weathered a day of probing questions and accusations from Democrats about the role she will play as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer under Mr. Trump.

A top priority will be tackling crime in hot spots across the country, she said, such as the looting in Los Angeles amid devastating fires and the ISIS-inspired massacre in New Orleans on New Year’s Day.

“People want law and order. They want to be safe,” Ms. Bondi said.

The president-elect campaigned on lowering crime, and he has railed against the government’s weaponization against him.

Mr. Trump promised voters he would end the Justice Department’s use of federal law enforcement under President Obama and President Biden to investigate conservatives, spy on Catholics and label as potential terrorists the parents who speak out at school board meetings.

That targeting, Ms. Bondi said, “will stop, must stop.”

Several Democrats wanted to know whether Ms. Bondi would wield her authority at the Justice Department to prosecute Mr. Trump’s political enemies, including former Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican and frequent target of Mr. Trump’s who helped lead an investigation with Democrats into his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

Ms. Bondi flipped the script by reminding Democrats that the political targeting started with their party shortly after Mr. Trump launched his 2016 presidential campaign.

The FBI, under Director James B. Comey, infiltrated the Trump campaign, according to whistleblowers, leading to a secret government investigation into a phony Russian collusion allegations that followed Mr. Trump into the Oval Office.

“They targeted Donald Trump,” Ms. Bondi said. “They have launched countless investigations against him. That will not be the case if I am attorney general. I will not politicize the office. I will not target people simply because of their political affiliation.”

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Mr. Trump’s first choice for attorney general, was forced to drop out of consideration because of misconduct claims and overwhelming opposition from lawmakers.

Republicans breathed a sigh of relief when Mr. Trump turned to Ms. Bondi, a career prosecutor who most on Capitol Hill believe will easily win confirmation in the Republican-led Senate.

Democrats drilled down on Ms. Bondi’s views of Kash Patel, whom Mr. Trump nominated to lead and shake up the FBI that spied on his campaign.

Democrats suspect Mr. Patel has an “enemies list” of those he named in “Government Gangsters,” his book about officials, mostly Democrats, who tried to remove Mr. Trump from office during his first term.

They include many Biden administration officials, Obama administration officials, and FBI and CIA operatives.

Ms. Bondi denied the existence of an enemies list.

“Kash Patel has had 60 jury trials as a prosecutor. He has great experience in the intel department. I have known Kash, and I believe that Kash is the right person at this time for this job,” Ms. Bondi said.

One of Ms. Bondi’s first tasks will be reviewing the status of defendants accused and convicted of crimes related to the Capitol riot.

Mr. Trump has promised to pardon at least some defendants. Many are in prison.

When asked by the top Democrat on the committee, Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, whether she thought violent rioters who assaulted law enforcement officers should be pardoned, Ms. Bondi said the president has the sole authority to issue pardons.

“But if asked to look at those cases, I will look at each case and advise on a case-by-case basis, just as I did my entire career as a prosecutor,” she said. “Let me be very clear in speaking to you: I condemn any violence on a law enforcement officer in this country.”

Several Democrats asked Ms. Bondi, an attorney for Mr. Trump’s 2020 campaign, whether she thought Mr. Biden won the 2020 election.

Ms. Bondi, who investigated and witnessed voting irregularities in Pennsylvania after the 2020 election and helped challenge Mr. Biden’s win, said Mr. Biden “is the president of the United States” and Mr. Trump is about to be sworn in as the next president.

Her repeated response rankled Sen. Maize Hirono, Hawaii Democrat, who wanted Ms. Bondi to acknowledge Mr. Biden’s victory.

“You won’t say it. It’s disturbing,” Ms. Hirono said.

Republicans wanted Ms. Bondi’s assurances that she would prioritize prosecuting the influx of gangs and other criminals from Mexico, whom Mr. Trump has pledged to deport.

Ms. Bondi said she would aggressively prosecute criminal gangs crossing illegally over the southern border, bringing deadly fentanyl and other drugs, and engaging in human trafficking.

She said cartels and other foreign crime groups, such as the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, are ascending in the U.S. because of the Biden administration’s flimsy border security.

Ms. Bondi said she doesn’t yet have the security clearance to know the crime syndicate’s exact movements, but hunting them down is a top priority.

“We all know there are criminals throughout our country, and it is my commitment to you, on both sides of the aisle, that I will do everything in my power, with the agencies that fall under me if I am confirmed, to make America safe again,” Ms. Bondi said.